We should perhaps spare a thought for Hong Kong officialdom … trapped as it is between Beijing’s current directives and the pre-1997 promises Beijing made about post-colonial Hong Kong being allowed to carry on “unchanged for 50 years.” The promises about existing...

Long ago, in the 1980s and 1990s when Hong Kong was preparing for the 1997 transfer from British back to Chinese rule, there was a basic question in many minds. The question was whether Hong Kong could be transformed into a democratically-governed city within the...